"Every week they have something different," Stu Tuchinsky of Chatham, another diner, said Monday.

The previous week, Bailey had prepared seared chicken breasts with black bean salsa verde, served with corn and tomato salad. There was dark chocolate cake with raspberry sauce for dessert.

Chatham started its weekly cafe program in January, following in the footsteps of similar programs in such towns as Bourne, Wellfleet and Truro.

One recent Monday, 20 diners got together to break crostini, served by volunteers in red aprons.

It's been a nice way to meet new people, said Broberg, seated with others at a small round table topped with a vase of carnations, baby's breath and daffodils.

Speakman wants to make the cafe a fun experience so diners feel comfortable returning to the senior center for exercise class, Scrabble games or computer school.

"The program is still in its infancy. I'm trying to build up a following," she said.

She might be careful what she wishes for. Iris's Cafe at the Wellfleet Senior Center - named after chef Iris Sands - attracts 34 to 40 people for Thursday lunch, Suzanne Grout Thomas, executive director of the Wellfleet Council on Aging, said.

"That's huge for Wellfleet," Thomas said. "When she does her shrimp scampi, we have to cap it at 50."

The Community Cafe at the Bourne Senior Center regularly attracts 50 people once the snowbirds return from Florida in the spring, Bourne Council on Aging executive director Felicita Monteiro said.

During the winter, there are about 30 diners every Monday, she said.

"We have a chef, and you know what, it is the food," Monteiro said. She described chef Joyce Michaud as "a perfectionist."

"You get a lot of flavor," Bailey said. She said her goal is to show people they can perk up aging taste buds with ingredients other than salt and sugar.

Sands, who cooks for Council on Aging cafes in both Wellfleet and Truro, prepares everything from scratch, Thomas said. "She uses all fresh ingredients."

The Wellfleet cafe has been in operation for about 15 years and the Truro program for 3 1/2, said Thomas and Susan Travers, director of the Truro Council on Aging.

The Chatham and Wellfleet programs also offer soup to go all week, while the Bourne and Truro cafes offer "to go" specials.

It's not unusual for someone from the Visiting Nurse Association of Cape Cod to call the Wellfleet Senior Center to request a walker and a pint of soup for a patient having hip replacement surgery, Thomas said.

Iris's Cafe allows Wellfeet Council on Aging staff and volunteers the opportunity to "keep on eye" on seniors living on their own in the community, Thomas said.

"I feel socially this is one of the best things we can do for Truro," Travers said.